Large car collections - how is fuel managed?

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Just watched a couple of Jay Leno's Garage and My Classic Car videos on youtube. The My Classic Car videos featured a few of NPD's cars, out of a collection of 200+ cars, and Jay Leno has a similarly large collection. These cars always seem ready to go, just get in and drive. But they obviously don't get driven very often in such large collections.

So my question is, how do they manage the gasoline for all these cars? Drain petcocks on every gas tank, to drain after every run? Some type of super fuel stabilizer? Only a few gallons at a time? Hundreds of full fuel tanks in one storage area doesn't seem like a good idea. Has anyone here seen info on this? Not that I'm planning on acquiring hundreds of classic cars anytime soon, just curious...
 
Jay Leno probably has staff maintaining the cars
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Id imagine theres some sort of rotation for road tests, at least locally, and maybe throwing 10-20$ of new stuff in when it goes out, plus stabilizer etc.
 
Fuel can sit a lot longer than people think. People worried about 6 months are worried about nothing.

And since everybody here shun additives, why are there so many gas stabilizer fans? And how does it stabilize? Can someone provide a technical explanation.
 
Originally Posted By: UncleDave
Race gas last a long time unstabilized.

UD



Yup, this. And VP racing fuels sells a 94 octane shelf-stable drum. Though it would be cheaper to run aircraft 100LL (which is well preserved itself) in cars that are lead-tolerant.

Someone with an "in" might be able to get VP to sell them a bulk purchase.

Cars from before the 1970s have fully vented fuel systems, meaning the lighter fractions of gas would easily evaporate off, worsening storage issues. My prius sat the winter on old gas but nothing could get into or out of its SULEV bladder tank. And I don't think it'll be collectible anytime soon.
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My friend said that Jay runs non ethanol gas,stabalizer and his crew keep up on them so this isn't much of a problem for him. I will go out on a limb and guess that his crew goes over a car every time before Jay drives it
 
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Originally Posted By: carviewsonic
These cars always seem ready to go, just get in and drive.


Video/film editing can make things appear much different than reality....
 
Thanks Chris for asking your friend. I would imagine the cars would have to be gone over before a run, some of them probably sit for months at a time. It sounds like there isn't anything too special about how the fuel gets handled...
 
Originally Posted By: slacktide_bitog
Jay Leno probably has staff maintaining the cars
smile.gif



Wouldn't bet against that. Imagine stabilizer, and run through a full tank each time it goes out. Wouldn't be surprised if Mr Leno has his own gas storage in site.
 
Originally Posted By: JLTD
Originally Posted By: slacktide_bitog
Jay Leno probably has staff maintaining the cars
smile.gif



Wouldn't bet against that. Imagine stabilizer, and run through a full tank each time it goes out. Wouldn't be surprised if Mr Leno has his own gas storage in site.


He's mentioned this many times in his show "Jay Leno's Garage."

I believe he also has a machine shop for those hard to find parts.
 
Originally Posted By: turtlevette

And since everybody here shun additives, why are there so many gas stabilizer fans? And how does it stabilize? Can someone provide a technical explanation.



Sta-Bil is one of those that I don't shun.

Although it's MOSTLY kerosene(like a lot of additives) the other 1% or so is present in quantities large enough for it to actually make a difference. Specifically, it contains either BHT(butylated hydroxytoluene) and/or derivative compounds.

BHT specifically, and a lot of related compounds, are actually really common industrially. At work(admittedly not an industrial application) we typical buy peroxide-forming solvents like diethyl ether and THF with .1% BHT to act as a peroxide "scavenger." It in general acts as a preferential oxidant and keeps other things from oxidizing even at relatively low levels. We keep the solid in bulk as some reactions will call for a small amount to be added to prevent unwanted oxidation side products.

Oxidized fuel can turn to varnish and also lose volatility. This is especially true now with the prevalence of oxidants in fuels-specifically ethanol, but also some other alcohols and even ethers(MTBE) in some parts of the world.

One can buy solid BHT, and buy it a lot less expensively than Sta-Bil, but the kerosene acts as a convenient carrier and makes it easier to mix in your gas. In addition, one could argue that-like MMO(another "light petroleum distillate" product) it's serving as an upper cylinder lubricant.
 
Why are you worried about gasoline oxidizing? I know we are concerned about fuel system components but they are made from materials that withstand oxidation already.

It's another feel good additive.
 
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